Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

4 Introduction to
score (principally in the North of England) bearing in
scriptions in the English Runic character. The most notable
of these are the elaborately carved crosses at Ruthwell
(Dumfries) with verses abridged from the Dream of the
Gross and Bewcastle (Cumberland), the grave slab with
inscriptions both in Roman uncials and Runic characters
from Falstone (Northumberland), and the three stones from
Thornhill (Yorks.). Of. Thornhill III. Gilsuifr ararde eefter
Berhtsuifre becun on bergi. Oebiddafr frier saule. (Gilswith
erected to the memory of Berhtswith a monument on the
tomb. Pray for her soul.) The earliest date probably
from the seventh century; while the latest contain forms
which point to about the middle of the ninth. There
seems no reason, however, for supposing that for this
purpose the English Runic alphabet remained longer in
use than for coins. At all events there is no evidence
that it survived the great Danish invasion of 866, which
swept away the upper classes in the greater part of
Northern England. After this time we find only MS. Runic
alphabets, doubtless preserved as antiquarian curiosities,
except for the letters wyn and from, which had been
adopted into the Anglo-Saxon book-hand, and e&el, dseg
and man, which were occasionally used as shorthand in
the MSS.
From the sixth century, however, the alphabet had
developed on totally
different lines in Scandinavia and
England. To the original 24 letters the English eventually
added six, tesc, ac, yr, ear, calc, gar, if not a seventh ior.
The Scandinavian alphabet, on the other hand, continually
reduced the number of letters, until by the ninth century
no more than sixteen were left. How incapable they were
of representing the sounds of the language can be seen from
the greater Jsellinge stone set up by Harold Bluetooth, king
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of Denmark (c. 940-986):
Haraltr kunukR baf> kaurua kubl pansi aft Kurm fapur sin auk
aft paurui rmij>ur sina, sa Haraltr ias sar uan Tanmaurk ala auk
Nuruiak auk Tani karpa kristnq.
(King Harold ordered this monument to be made to the